The art relevant to this invention includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,493,483; 2,681,315; 3,019,187; 3,123,570; 3,390,083; 3,872,018; 3,933,662 and 4,138,347. The first of these patents discloses a marine engine lubricant capable of forming stable emulsions when in contact with an aqueous medium and comprising a glyoxalidine, a metal sulfonate, a partial ester of polyhydric alcohols and a higher fatty acid having at least 10 carbon atoms with the ester having at least one free hydroxy group, the balance being a mineral oil. The purpose of the lubricant is to render harmless moisture present in steam engines by forming stable water-in-oil emulsions and it thus operates by a physicochemical phenomenon. U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,315 describes the use in a lubricant of a alkylphenoxy polyethoxyethanol having from 2-6 ether groups together with a calcium petroleum sulfonate and an alkaline earth metal salt of an alkylphenol sulfide to improve the anti-rusting properties of the oil. U.S. Pat. No. 3,019,187 describes lubricating oils containing alkyl phenoxy polyoxyethylene alcohols and ethers containing from 5-30 ethyleneoxy substituents which in combination with other additives improve the load-carrying ability of the lubricant. U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,570 describes the use of alkylphenol polyoxyethanols containing from 7 to 9 ethyleneoxy groups to improve the detergency of the lubricant. U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,083 describes the use of a blocked polyester in conjunction with dimer acids and overbased alkaline earth metal sulfonates in a lubricant for marine diesel engine upper cylinders. The patent states that a lubricant suitable for use in marine diesel engines upper cylinders of engines operating on high sulfur fuel oil must be spreadable and wettable on the pistons, the piston rings and the internal surfaces of the cylinder while remaining there under the pressures that the piston rings exert against the cylinder linings. The patent, however, only ascribes to its composition the properties of inhibiting or minimizing wear between frictional surfaces of metals without ascribing improved spreadability either to blocked polyesters alone or their combination with dimer acids. U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,048 describes lubricants which prevent the corrosion of metal surfaces when exposed to water and containing cresoles and a polyoxyethylenealkylaryl ether which is the reaction product of ethyleneoxide and nonylphenol in a ratio of between 3 to 1 and 7 to 1. The patented composition prevents corrosion by two mechanisms, the application of a film of inhibitor on metal surfaces and the encapsulation of the corrosive medium, water, in a stable water-oil emulsion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,662 reports that polyalkoxylated phenoxy compounds in combination with alkaline earth metal carbonates provide rust and corrosion protection in an oil. As reported in Column 2, lines 30-33 of the patent, the polyalkoxylated compounds act by a chemical phenomenon to neutralize acid from an aqueous phase mixed with a lubricant oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,347 indicates that adducts of nonyl phenol and ethyleneoxide wherein the ethyleneoxy groups range from 1 to 9.5 have a dispersing and/or solubilizing action on overbased calcium sulfonates in 100 percent synthetic diester base lubricants.
As above indicated the above patents deal with the chemical effect of polyalkoxylated compounds but do not ascribe any physical effects thereto, such as spreadability.